:-( It reminds me of how when I was younger I used to think how lucky I was to be a girl because, from everything I saw, a boy's life was a full-time job of desperately trying to establish to everyone you meet that you're not gay.

Yeah. We've run into that. Of course, my son is playing with the My Little Ponies and looking at the dress up dresses more than my daughter is (she's jonesing for new Lego kits), while I'm standing there trying not to drag them faster to the action figure aisle so I can check out what Justice League figs they have in.

I can't remember my parents ever insisting on my choosing "girl" toys over "boy" toys, so when I was growing up I had My Little Ponies AND Lego sets. I built stables out of Lego for my Ponies, which they stomped on and broke down when they stampeded because of the attacking dinosaurs and Decepticons.

:) Yeah, my Luke and Leia figures spent a lot of time riding Ponies. There's just a lot more advertising now and even when we try to guide them (especially Girl -- Boy likes everything) towards toys that aren't as traditionally gendered (and also towards television options without as many commercials), all her friends are playing with them and she still sees them on TV. Pink hit our house like the rotavirus when she started spending time with a little girl her own age. But she still likes Legos, and she wants to be Supergirl rather than Hannah Montana or a Bratz character, so that's something.

I had to throw a king-daddy-bonzo hissy fit to get a GI Joe when I was a kidlet. Mom said "That's a BOY toy, hun." *snirk*Of course, part of the reason I wanted him was that I needed him as a proper boyfriend for my barbies (not all Barbies(tm), but the generic term for girly dolls of that type), because Ken was just not cutting it.

I remember being very alarmed by a Joe when I was five or so. They had pin joints back then, possibly metal ones, as opposed to Barbie's bendy legs. I think a part of me wondered if this was the real actual difference between boys and girls.

*giggle*I used to wonder how come my baby cousins and the one best play-buddy I'd accidentally seen naked had that little thingamabob and GI Joe and Ken didn't. I had a theory for a short time (I think I was 7 or 8) that it was like the baby's little umbilical cord thing and dropped off when they got older. When I asked my mom one day when I was 'helping' babysit my cousin you should've seen the face she made. I just thought she was mad that I was asking about 'private parts', but I don't remember now if she ever explained at that time.

You remember the LJ spokesperson who said that the choice between basic journal and ad-blotched journal and paid journal is too confusing for their users? That one designed the rules for acceptable behavior in guys too, I'm sure.

book: More if You've Got It; iD; Little Dorrit; America Again: Re-becoming the Greatness We Never Weren't; Zeus Grants Stupid Wishes; Death comes to the Archbishop; Mary and Lou and Rhoda and Ted; The Book of Ice; To Be or Not to Be; Area 51

comics:Captain Marvel; Genshiken; Sailor Moon; Yotsuba!&

teevee: A Touch of Cloth 2

dvd:The World's End; This Hour Has 22 Minutes; Futurama; The Avengers; John Dies at the End